1996 The theme was a playground zoo and the hosts were two amazing ladies -- Whitney Houston and Rosie O'Donnell. It was a zoo of a night (in the best way possible)!

Rosie would go on to host the KCA's for the next 7 years

1997 Rosie O'Donnell hosted the landmark 10th Annual KCAs at the Grand Olympic Auditorium. With 6,000 kids at the Nick-o-Drome, April 19 was a night to remember for sure!

1998 Rosie rocked the KCAs in Los Angeles alongside musical group Aerosmith, Puff Daddy and Madonna. What a crowd!

1999 Rosie entertained over 8,000 cheering kids and families for the third year in a row! We can't get enough of her!

2000 Our favorite host, Rosie is back for more as she acts as the Mistress of Ceremonies. David Arquette, Frankie Muniz, LL Cool J and Mandy Moore co-hosted this huge celebration. A record of over 15 million kids vote for their favorites!

2001 Rosie brought in the awards for the 5th year in a row! She was there to see Will Smith win not one but THREE Orange Blimp Awards AND get slimed!

2002 Rosie is major part of the KCAs past she got to see the first ever Burp Award tie! Jessica Alba and Steve Irwin were too close with their bold burps!

2003 Rosie's last year hosting the KCAs was a hit! After seven years of amazing KCA memories, she was properly sent off with a healthy dose of ooey gooey slime!

2006 Jack Black is wild, funny, and totally out there! He definitely brought the fun when he hosted the 2006 KCAs.

In 2008 Jack hosted his second KCA after Justin Timberlake and attempts to be the best show host ever! And he definitely succeeded with the help of The Rocktopus, iCarly and musical guests like Lil' Mama, The Naked Brothers Band and Miley Cyrus!

2011 Jack Black is back! We can never get enough of his crazy dancing, awesome jokes, and all around great attitude! Plus, who can ever forget his flash mob scene on the orange carpet?

Alan Goodman, Albie Hecht and Fred Seibert started the awards show as The Big Ballot in 1986, named for the ballots kids voted with. To vote, the viewers would send in ballots and then before the show, the ballots would be counted and the winners would tape a thank you video that would be shown during the program.

The award was configured into the current blimp shape/kaleidoscope in 1990. The only change to the award since that time has been to change the embossed logotype on the side of the trophy for 2010 to fit the network's new logo typeface.

As the Internet came into widespread use, the voting eventually moved from a combination of 900 number telephone voting and ballots either mailed or completed at Pizza Hut locations, to moving exclusively online to the network's website and by 2007, text messaging. Early years of Internet voting had the early adoption complications of ballot stuffing and even adults voting before a new system where only one vote per Nick.com account became the procedure for voting on the awards (although it is probable adults still cast votes via the texting option, which is connected to a phone number only rather than a screenname, or by creating an account with a false age or having their children vote for a chosen subject instead). In 2010, an iPhone application and mobile browser voting was also added.

The 2009 KCAs featured a new award called "The Big Green Help Award" which goes to the celebrity who goes above and beyond to help the Earth. The inaugural award was presented to Leonardo DiCaprio. For the 2010 awards, the "The Big Green Help" award was renamed "The Big Help" award, with First Lady Michelle Obama winning the first award under the rename.

Unlike traditional awards shows, the Kids' Choice Awards uses other items to announce an award winner rather than a traditional envelope. The show sometimes uses balloons, T-shirts, models, giant letters, stickers (1999, where Amanda put a "Kick Me!" sticky on the model's back and somebody else put a sticker showing the winner's name). and even a foot (2008). In contrast to the trend of declining ratings for awards shows, the Kids' Choice Awards has gone from strength to strength, setting new ratings records each of the past four years (2005–2009).

Voting for Canadians became available for the 2010 ceremony with the inauguration of Nickelodeon's Canadian service in November 2009.

In June 2011, Nickelodeon Latin America announced a Kids' Choice Awards for Mexico. Other countries with their own Kids' Choice Awards: Brazil, United Kingdom, Australia, and Indonesia.